a match to gasoline
by senpaitoldmeno
Summary: His father called the word scrawled over his breastbone in bold but elegant strokes 'potential.' His mother called it 'possibility.' Tsuna just knows that it's not a promise - he's more likely to catch a flesh-eating bacteria than meet the person who shares his Name.


**a match to gasoline**

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Chapter One : how far we came

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It's a beautiful day outside - one in a long, seemingly unending line of beautiful days. Tsuna blames the local weather for being the reason why he doesn't really get why things like rain or snow are used as that literary tool called 'symbolism.' No - forget that! Why are people like them even studying foreign literature?!

Turning his attention to his partner, he sees that Hayato is still as distracted now as he's been with his phone all day. "What do you have going on with that?' Tsuna asks dryly, shouldering his backpack uncomfortably. His is always at least five times heavier than anyone else's, although they all have more or less the same workload.

Hayato makes a rude noise, though not at him. "I'm gonna fucking crush them," he mutters, snapping his gum irritably.

"Playing a mobile game?" Tsuna prods further, although for all the years that he's known Hayato, he isn't the kind that 'wastes his time on useless bullshit.'

Predictably, Hayato clicks his tongue with disgust. "No," he says shortly.

Tsuna is probably a dishonest person. He's never fully adjusted to having someone dote on him the way Hayato does, but the moment his attention is somewhere else, Tsuna starts to get a bit lonely. His transparent child-ears droop and flatten, not that it's easy to tell with his hair the way it is - well, that's the point of it, really.

He's just about resigned himself to sulking over something as dumb as not having Hayato's full attention when an annoying cackle reaches his pricked ear. Tsuna turns just in time to receive a thick skull to his stomach, briefly winding him.

All the same, Tsuna is grateful that Lambo has finally grown enough that he's no longer getting head-butted in the groin. That had been the worst year of his life since coming to know these two kids.

Automatically, his hand comes to rest on top of the boy's head even as he clings to Tsuna's waist, shouting something mostly indiscernible regarding I-Pin and schoolwork. Lambo's running away skills have only gotten better thanks to I-Pin's struggle to have him behave with some kind of dignity. Tsuna really hopes she knows that she's his favorite.

"Lambo!" I-Pin scolds loudly as she catches up, tail lashing. "Don't tackle Tsuna-senpai like that!"

"You're being mean!" Lambo shouts back at her, not even attempting to moderate his volume. He clutches harder at Tsuna's waist. "Tsuna-nii! I-Pin is being mean to me!"

"M-maybe you're provoking her," Tsuna says, a bit helplessly.

"Hey!" Hayato barks, bumping into Tsuna as he reaches around him and plants his hand heavily on Lambo's head, only just avoiding a fistful of black ears. "Don't go around clinging to some other Sacrifice's Fighter!"

"Hayato," Tsuna says, mostly in a bid for understanding from the other older person in this situation, but also because - shouldn't Hayato tell him not to run around and to respect his own Fighter more?!

Given that Lambo is a crybaby, it's not surprising that his face scrunches up and his lip wobbles. "Idiot!" he shouts. "Tsuna-nii was mine, first!"

"As if! You came here already spoken for, you-!"

At that point, Tsuna more or less gives up. He's been the battleground that Hayato and Lambo have chosen to fight on since Lambo was even more of a child than his current twelve years. He settles on trying to get the noisy group headed for the dorms, more or less comfortable with navigating this kind of battlefield.

"I-Pin," he says, glancing toward her. "Have they said anything yet about your rooms?"

The face that I-Pin pulls at the question is so earnest it almost looks like she's trying to take on responsibility for the failures of others. "Not yet," she says, shaking her head enough to make her cute twin braids bounce and hit her shoulders. Then she cuts her eyes down and away, avoiding Tsuna's gaze.

Tsuna watches her for a moment longer, troubled. "I know you want to stay with everyone, I-Pin, but you'll want a room to yourself sooner or later," he says.

This time her head shake is more vehement. Tsuna sighs. She's a good kid, and reliable, but there are things even I-Pin gets stubborn about. Ahead, Lambo squeals and shouts ugly taunts at Hayato while Hayato chases him and manhandles him, snapping and snarling and never using his full strength against that annoying kid.

It's a bit embarrassing, but by this time even the Academy rookies have more or less gotten used to how those two are.

"Lambo's still scared of the arena," I-Pin says, a bit hushed at his elbow.

Tsuna glances down at her, but her head is ducked just so that he can't make out her expression. He exhales, glancing ahead at Lambo and Hayato's roughhousing. "I thought so," he mutters. Lambo really is good at running away. "But your Name is ⸢Resilient⸣, I-Pin. So do your best, alright?"

He doesn't know what else to offer her in this situation. He's already tried talking to Lambo about it, but that hadn't really fixed the situation at all. Maybe this is something that I-Pin and Lambo have to figure out for themselves?

It's a bit unfair, isn't it?

Their bickering having run its course, Hayato finally drops back in step with Tsuna, and he pulls his phone back out and goes right back to whatever disagreement he's been having with it all day. Tsuna has to smile at that, a little bit - that whatever thing has kept Hayato from putting the phone down all day even to answer the teachers' questions had disappeared for long enough to bully the lingering anxieties out of Lambo.

"Bastard," Hayato snaps at his phone, punching it with his thumbs so hard that Tsuna thinks it might finally break. And then, as Lambo and I-Pin split away from them toward the rookie dorms, he glances up, his gaze a jade sliver. "No luck, huh."

"No luck," Tsuna confirms with no little concern. "I don't like how the rookies are starting to look at I-Pin. She's getting to be the age of kids just coming into the Academy. They're not used to the environment yet and don't know how to behave themselves."

Hayato hammers away at the phone as he follows Tsuna up the stairs toward their own rooms. It's only after the stairwell is empty that he speaks again. "I-Pin is a street kid. Even if she got off them early, she won't have forgotten that."

"It shouldn't have to come to that though," Tsuna says. "I know that she's capable even without Lambo's support, but-"

"No, I mean," Hayato says, not looking up- "sometimes there's power in choosing your own method of getting rid of your ears."

Tsuna stops, and turns, and stares at Hayato. From two stairs further up than him, they'd see eye-to-eye if Hayato would stop slouching and look up, but he doesn't. "I don't want her to have to do that, either," he says.

Hayato sighs. "Tsuna," he says, and only that.

After a moment, Tsuna says, "Sorry. I know I don't know anything about it. I don't know how or why or for what reasons you came here without them yourself, so I don't know what it means, but - I don't want people I care about to be forced to grab power that way. Choosing between giving up your ears or having them taken? That's not any kind of choice."

Huffing, Hayato continues to thumb at his phone, one handed now as the other reaches up and pulls a bit restlessly at the long hair around his neck. "It does matter," he says, glancing over the stairwell railing. And then he sighs again and looks up grimly. "But you're right, too."

As he looks back to his phone and steps to the side and moves up and around Tsuna, Tsuna keeps watching him. He would listen, if Hayato wanted to say it - he listened when Hayato chose to tell him his Name, even though it isn't his to know.

"Sorry, but - even if you say that, it doesn't make me happy," Tsuna sighs as he follows Hayato up the stairwell, their positions reversed.

Hayato grunts. "I'd be more bothered by that if I didn't know you're never happy."

"Sometimes I'm happy," Tsuna rebukes, a bit defensively as he hunches his shoulders. The way his child-ears fold back is probably much less noticeable than the prickling way his crooked tail must be bristling, as flashy as it is.

The derisive snort that Hayato gives is his only reply.

"Well, it's not like you're ever happy, either," he adds darkly, allowing himself to give his tail one sharp, wide swish before forcing it back down to thump against his calves irritably. There isn't even a snort in reply to that tactless remark.

By the time that they reach the top floor, Hayato has slowed enough that Tsuna has caught up to him, still puffing a bit reflexively although the climb no longer winds him the way it once had.

"Hey! ⸢Useless⸣!"

They both come to a halt, although arguably only Tsuna is the one being called out by Kaneda. Hayato clicks his tongue. "Hey," he says. "A person like you who can't even form an Accord shouldn't be up here."

Kaneda bristles. "Get over yourself! You aren't special," he snaps. "Don't be so proud of forming an Accord with _that._" The 'that' which he's referring to is Tsuna, of course.

Hayato barely even glances up from his phone, but his voice has gone hard and cold when he says, "_hey,_ why dont' you try coming back to call Tsuna '_that_' when you've actually managed to beat him in the first place."

Kaneda is larger than both of them, and if ranking was a matter of sheer brute physical force - it's likely that Hayato and Tsuna both would be toward the bottom of the pile. "It's not my fault my weapon was weak," Kanada snaps. "I'll have a better tool this time, ⸢Useless⸣."

"Ch'!"

It happens suddenly enough to surprise Tsuna, so Hayato is able to reach past him and grab Kaneda by the front of his shirt, his fist white knuckled where it closes around tie and collar both and yanks Kaneda down to his eye level. "Fighters are not your _tools_," Hayato says even as the air warps around them and lends a snap-crackle of _power_ to his words. "Until you figure that out, I'll keep making you lick the soles of my shoes, got it?"

"Hayato," Tsuna says uncertainly, reaching out to take hold of his elbow without pulling or tugging. No matter how hard he tries, Hayato can't actually Command another Sacrifice, but if he's not careful, the battle system will engage and that'll get them in trouble.

"What then?" Kaneda says with a contemptuous quirk of his mouth. "All this time you've been clinging to that useless weapon. Haven't you thought things through? The fact that you win your battles at all is thanks to your skill and your skill alone. When are you going to get smart about this?"

The electric feeling in the air keeps clicking, like a gear stuck in place - Hayato's feelings fighting against his logic. He's always had an awful temper, of course, and more than once the battle system has engaged over him losing it and ending up thrusting the two of them into an unplanned battle, but - right now, Hayato is trying his best not to engage it.

"Hayato," Tsuna says again, "he doesn't even have a Fighter with him." That's likely on purpose, too, since everyone has learned well just how short Hayato's fuse is. If Kaneda had gone for this confrontation with a Fighter, they'd be in the middle of a battle now most likely.

But in this case it seems enough, since Hayato scoffs and thrusts Kaneda back with the hand closed around his collar. "Get out of my sight," he says sharply. "We'll face each other soon enough. If I see you before then, I'll beat you with my own fists."

Kaneda grunts, pausing a moment to straighten out his shirt and best and fiddle with his tie, the entire time giving Hayato a complicated look. "Too bad _you_ aren't a weapon," he says. "You're dumb and crude enough to be one."

The phone in Hayato's hand creaks, which is enough to halt his anger. He doesn't answer back, although the crackling energy in the air doesn't abate for a long moment as Kaneda finally takes his leave.

"He's just trying to rattle you and get a sense for your weak spots," Tsuna says after the door closes behind him and they're left alone in the hallway outside their doors.

"I already know that!" Hayato says impatiently, but he turns and kicks their door before roughly unlocking it and swinging it wide open. Only the fact that the quartermaster had long since installed a door jam prevents a new hole from being put in their wall.

Tsuna sighs as he follows Hayato inside, closing and locking the door behind them. He hates it when the matches are announced ahead of time like this - everyone has known for years which weapon Hayato will use, but it doesn't stop them from approaching them and trying the usual tactics that are so popular around the school.

He wonders what they'll do when they graduate the academy and have to face people they only know by reputation.

"Kaneda has a point though," Tsuna says as he deposits his bag by the door, unwilling to carry its weight for longer than he needs to. Hayato has already thrown himself into his chair and is hunched back over his phone with a single minded focus. "If you were a Fighter, you'd be unstoppable."

"Even if I were, a Fighter is only as good as their Sacrifice," Hayato shoots back. "And all the Sacrifices here are shit."

"Kyoko-chan isn't shit," Tsuna rebukes with a scowl, his crooked tail lashing once more.

Rolling his eyes, Hayato says: "she's too soft. She lacks the killer instinct that a good Sacrifice has. Her Fighter needs to be able not to worry about her, not… managing her delicate sensibilities or worrying about her getting hurt." Taking note of the fact that Tsuna's tail has undoubtedly doubled in size, he huffs. "I guess she's okay when the chips are down," he concedes reluctantly. "But you know the Academy isn't as tough on the girls."

"That's not their fault," Tsuna says, but Hayato's reminder has turned his mouth to ash. He looks away sullenly, and Hayato, though uncomfortable with their discord, doesn't apologize.

He shouldn't though, is the thing. Tsuna is glad that the Academy doesn't treat the girls like it does the boys. A part of Tsuna has always wanted Kyoko to be his Sacrifice, but - isn't it better that she's not?

He doesn't allow himself to contemplate the idea that he might have wanted it specifically because the nature of Kyoko's battles would be easier than the ones he faces while allowing Hayato to Command him. It's true that they always win, but it's never easy, and Tsuna? Well. He's not the sort that likes to fight, even if it's the entire purpose for his existence.

Shrugging it off uneasily, Tsuna makes a detour to their rooms cramped kitchenette. It's barely enough room to cook anything, but neither he nor Hayato are culinarily inclined, and it's enough for Tsuna to mix up some tea from a powder and put a sandwich or other snack together with. He sympathizes with the people who have special dietary needs and have to use it for actual cooking.

Or at least, he thinks he remembers his mom having a large kitchen with so many appliances in it. Maybe. Probably.

The last thing that Tsuna wants to do after a long day at the Academy is study, but - ah, after Kaneda came by and said nasty things just to test out Hayato's defenses, there's also no way he's going to hold Hayato back. If only being a Fighter didn't require such a breath of knowledge out of him - but there's no way that Tsuna could ever be a Sacrifice, either. Even if his preference is that no one gets hurt, Commanding someone… he just doesn't have that kind of strength.

But also, Tsuna frequently lacks _imagination _\- and it's the Fighter's words, their experiences and their minds, which give the spells their form.

That's probably why literature is being taught to them, Tsuna thinks dismally, getting his books out and taking a seat at the table. Spreading out his homework, he looks at the array of it - from riddles and logic puzzles, to physics and fighting styles - sighs, and then puts himself to work.

The room has been quiet other than Tsuna for the last hour or so, and then Hayato suddenly has an outburst. "_Ha!_" he shouts, startling Tsuna so badly that the books he'd been balancing on his empty cup go flying.

Hayato lunges to his feet, excited, his phone clutched between he hands and lifted up over his head like a scene from the Lion King. "I did it! Take that, you bastards!"

Tsuna eyes him warily for a moment, wondering, "A game?"

"Pft! No," he answers, and despite the reflexive, habitual contempt, he's still grinning excitedly as he holds out the phone to show Tsuna the screen.

Obligingly, Tsuna leans halfway out of his chair to get a good look, his tail flung out for balance. It doesn't make a lot of sense, though - Tsuna is able to read that it's some kind of receipt for something that's expensive - _Hayato, please! Consider your finances more carefully!_ \- but he's not sure what for. Hayato pulls it back after a moment, clutching it in tight, excited fingers.

"I managed to get tickets to the tournament Friday night!" he proclaims happily.

Tsuna's emotions get the best of him and he spills out of his chair and onto the floor, eyes wide. "What, really?" he demands, scrambling up on to his knees. He probably looks stupid, but Hayato seems too pleased to notice that. Then reality intrudes. "Hayato, even if it's on Friday, there's no way you can get there in time without skipping classes, and then you'll be out after curfew, when the school gates shut."

"What cares about that?" Hayato demands recklessly. "This is a once in a lifetime chance! As if Vongola or the Arcobaleno Academy will ever come so close to this podunk little town ever again!"

Tsuna feels what Hayato is saying to his very bones, and yet- "I guess, but skipping school, Hayato… we're already always in trouble as it is. Being out after curfew isn't like telling off a teacher."

"Of course it's not," he scoffs, and then his voice takes a turn for the weedling, "but you already thought about it this much, right? Come on, Tsuna. It's a chance to see that guy you're a fan of in the flesh."

Tsuna starts at the rather rude reminder, warmth pricking over his skin as his tail bristles. "I - I don't - what are you talking about, Hayato? Haha…" he says awkwardly, smoothing his damp palms over his knees and avoiding Hayato's face.

Hayato joins him where he has settled on the floor. "That's why you already knew about skipping classes, right?" he says keenly, his tone leaning toward wheedling. "It's because of that guy - the Arcobaleno champion, ⸢Renewal⸣'s Sacrifice."

"You know they aren't ⸢Renewal⸣," Tsuna says before he can stops himself, and flushes harder to hear how sulky it sounds out loud. He commits, adding, "you and I thought they might be called that if they were a True Match."

"It's easier just to call a pair by a name, like we're the Tenth team," Hayaoto says, waving off. As if a match's number is anything at all like presuming a pair's Name! "Besides, back then I thought maybe you were looking at the Fighter of ⸢Renewal⸣. At least until I saw your keychain."

The way he says it is so calm and matter of fact that the surprise feels even worse, and Tsuna makes a noise like a kettle left to boil. He's a failure at everything! He'd know better than to indulge in merch, but he allowed himself to think that a simple hat with an orange band would be overlooked!

No, on second thought, that's clearly more suspicious! It's not like a cute animal that he could pretend meant something else! Couldn't he have figured this out sooner?!

Hayato clasps his hands together, giving Tsuna a keen look. "So you'll be going with me, right? I've already paid for two tickets. We can watch the matches and play that game, giving good partners temporary Names! So you'll do it? Right? Right?"

Nevermind, Tsuna can never properly imagine what Hayato might have looked like as a child, since he resembles a dog the most. The thumping noise of Tsuna's crooked tail striking the wooden floor is accompanied by his anxious, annoyed grumbling for a moment, but he finally relents. "Fine," he sighs, even though this is bound to get them _so much punishment,_ "I'll go."

"Yes!" Hayato truly does seem pleased with his victory. "No worries, Tsuna," he says, scooching around to pull Tsuna up against his side, ruffling Tsuna hair heedless of his ears. "If we get caught, I'll tell them I made it a Command!"

"You can't!" He squirms, trying to escape the awful overstimulation driving white noise through his brain. "Hayato! You don't have to lie about it and get in trouble for my sake!"

"No, this is fair," he says, letting go of Tsuna. His mood is obviously pretty high, fully recovered from the dismal place it had been after their confrontation with Kaneda. Hayato puffs out his chest in pride, thumping it with his finger and grinning. "Besides, I'm the Sacrifice, here. It's my responsibility to shield you and remain standing no matter what!"

"Something like that only matters in a battle!" Tsuna says, pawing at his hair, trying to negotiate the crazy cowlicks and his ears until everything is in place again. It also helps soothe some of his anxiety, so once he's finished with that, he pulls his tail into his lap and begins combing his short fingernails through the fluff.

A bit predictably, Hayato ignores Tsuna's remark. Now that he's achieved his goal in getting the tickets, all his focus on his phone evaporates, and he abandons it on the couch with a careless toss. "Started on your homework already? As expected of the Academy's top Fighter!"

"I'm not," Tsuna says, but lets go of his tail and gets to his feet. "Hibari will always be the top Fighter."

"That guy?" Hayato scoffs. "He refuses to work with a Sacrifice. It's true that it's scary that he can withstand so much damage by himself and fight at the same time, but he's always going to lose to a pair."

"But if we're just talking about Sacrifices or Fighters, then he's the strongest," Tsuna persists, sitting down at the desk. "If they were to pit Hibari by himself against me, he'd naturally win every time. I'd be crushed. And it'd be scary."

"Your natural strength comes in when you're protecting someone, so it doesn't matter," Hayato says firmly, brimming with certainty and confidence. Tsuna wishes he had a fraction of it, watching Hayato pick up one of the books and open it. "A Fighter or a Sacrifice who are alone is unnatural in the first place. What's the point of names if they're not meant to be a set?"

"I don't know, maybe the matched sets are a fluke," he says a bit dismally, picking up his pencil and scribbling an anxious little doodle into the margins. "Maybe that's why there are so few of them. There are bound to be repeats, don't you think? There are only so many words in the world."

Hayato snorts and whacks Tsuna over the head with the packet of his worksheets that he'd been looking at. "Don't be dense. That's not what your instincts tell you. Finding a True Match…"

He hardly has to finish that thought. With Lambo and I-Pin around, it's impossible not to know about the concept of a 'True Match,' but- "The chances are next to none," Tsuna cautions him. The chances of finding a True Match are so small that until ⸢Resilient⸣ arrived, the teachers had refused to even acknowledge the possibility when any of the students forced them to talk about it.

'Get over that dream right this instant and forget all about it,' they'd been told. 'The sooner you can focus on compromising like a functional adult-' -and so on, and so forth.

But as Hayato said - their instincts pinged on ⸢Resilient⸣ immediately, and other such True Matches. It's always obvious when a pair are a True Match when they fight - but Tsuna also can't ignore that in all his years at the Academy, there's only been the one Matched pair, who arrived at the Academy already knowing who they were.

If anything, ⸢Renewal⸣ proves that you don't have to be a True Match to achieve excellence.

-0-

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**NOTES: **

* Although it employs some tropes from Loveless, it's obviously an AU given the rarity of people finding their Named match.

* I'm not bothering with the biology of the Ears+Tails and the loss of them, just because it's a complicated process people don't actually understand, like hiccups. It varies from person to person how easy they are to 'lose' and 'graduate to adulthood' and although commonly people lose them to sex, it's not necessarily the first time they have sex that does it.

Still, culturally, the assumption is usually sex since that's more polite than wondering what trauma did it to you lmao.

* Hibari Kyoya, 19yo Teacher's Aid, still refuses to be Commanded and gleefully stomps on everyone during combat class. Tetsuya is crying in the background, "Kyo-san, pls, accept a partner!' but he refuses.

please imagine tiny 6yo Kyoya as a Fighter mercilessly goading others into fighting him and crushing them with single-word spells.


End file.
